Kids Craft: Administrative Divisions Study and Flags T-Shirt

For a while, the six year old was into Administrative Divisions of the countries of the world - be it Russia's oblasts and krais, or Germany's Bundesländer, India's states, he wanted to know their names and their flags.

Armed with an oversized and large parchment paper, he traced many countries with their administrative divisions and colored them in, to make his own book of Admin. Divs.

This enthusiasm got me pumped and I ended up making a unique Admin Divs. Flags shirt for his birthday. He claims that's the best birthday gift, second only to a book we gave him. The shirt front has flags of 6 Russian oblasts, krais and republics; the back of the shirt has 6 German Bundesländer flags.

Seven it is

Oggie turned 7 a few weeks ago without much fanfare or fuss, just the way he wanted. We planned a small family celebration at Gilbert House Children's Museum with just his sister and parents. Quite by coincidence he ran into two of his friends and former classmates from his preschool there and had a blast anyway.

We rounded out the day by visiting his grandparents who made a delicious dinner for all of us.

We didn't have a party this year... and he didn't ask for one either. A quiet and low-key way to mark another year of fresh experiences and joyful living.

I did make him a custom t-shirt - exact;y the way he wanted it: With flags! The front has 6 of the Russian administrative divisions (krais, oblasts, republics) and the back has the German Bundesländer.

Kids Craft: Customized Valentine's Day Flags Cards

Valentine Flag Cards

The six year old vexillologist designed a "Friendship Card" for Valentine's day to give to his classmates. He was particular about choosing flags that he considered interesting; he also tried to match up some of his friends with the flags of the countries of their ancestry. With classmates from Armenia, Azores, Serbia, Russia, Germany, Scotland, Sweden and Italy, he had a fabulous time getting the cards ready with me.

At first, he wanted to draw and color the flags, which I whole-heartedly encourage usually. But, considering the time constraints and his flu-like symptoms, I decided to print it. Much like last year when Prehistoric Life was all the rage, which led to unique valentines, this year, it is all about flags and countries.


We did add a kid-friendly joke inside each card with the answer at the bottom. Og picked out a few special jokes and knew which friend would enjoy it the most so he made sure the right flag and the right joke went together to the right recipient.

All that was left to do was stamp some sweet treats and color them in and add some custom drawings to personalize the card with an inside story. The kid enjoyed this process to his heart's content, relating a story about each. For example, he chose to color one of the cards with a jar full of sweets in a jumble of colors claiming that the jar was left out and the candy inside got all sticky and gooey running into each other. In another card, he added a table on which the jar rests (rather than being suspended in mid air), and proceeded to add a few candy on the table and on their way to the table from the jar, explaining that some of the candy from the jar started escaping before the lid was tightened.

Finally, he wrote his name in the "From:" part of each card. He had typed the recipients' name when we were designing the card layout, rather than writing the names by hand. I didn't mind it this time as he did the typing himself to make sure the recipient's name is readable.

Rather than a cutesy finished product that looks all perfectly adorable and cliched, it seemed more appropriate to let the kid decide on what sort of a card to make for Valentine's day. In another year or two, he may not be interested at all, which is fine.

His friends may not even realize the fact that he put in so much thought and effort into creating these unique cards. But, going by his current interest, which is all Flags, flags, and more flags, the cards gave him a sense of ownership and pride in making something special as a token of friendship. And that is all that matters.

P v.Z Mania

I never thought I'd be writing about a game here. A game that the younger child is allowed to play on iPad when he has earned his 30-minute turn on a weekend. A game that father and son discuss extensively, plan strategies, and combine their forces to get to the next level.

"Mama, can I unload the dishwasher now, so I can earn my turn on the iPad?" That's not something I expected to hear from my baby, albeit, six year old baby, any time soon. But, sure enough, the urge to strategize and win levels and play different modes, clearly has him scrambling for ways to earn his nominal iPad turn just to focus on PvZ. the older child can take it or leave it.

The kid has been working on his own plants and packs for the game, on paper, of course. Some of the made-up plants: Spyberry (spies on zombies and comes out and drills when they are close), Booberry (scares off zombies), Gooseberry (shoots goose eggs at zombies), Radish (pulls zombies underground), Slime moss (sticks to other plants, slimes the zombies, and only lasts for 3 zombies), Palm Tree (makes zombies relax under it, sit and sip lemonade, when they are close to it), Smoke Tree (makes smoke from its leaves and chokes zombies), Loca (drops coconut and bowls it at zombies)...

And, with new plants, can themed packs be far behind? He has made up the Time Travel (based on Doctor Who's time traveling), Halloween Land Pack, Football Games Pack, Dancing Shows Pack, Insect Pack, Chess Pack, and Farm Travel Pack.

Any spare time he gets, he sits with this 1" wide grid paper (I admit it, I created the grid and printed it for him) and draws plants after plants, even strategizing how many coins (suns?) to collect before each plant can be used.

Not being a player myself, I find it fascinating that the other three in the house talk about this virtual world with such interest and anticipation. Since screen time is limited to weekends, and reading is a pleasurable activity that we all indulge in every day, this recent craze for the Plants versus Zombies game seems bizarre to me. But, this too shall pass, am sure. C'est la vie.

The Not-a-Stick Magic Twig

"Remember, Oggie? No sticks in the house. Leave it in the yard, okay?"

"But, Mama! It's not a stick! It's my Magic Twig. It lets me do all kinds of magic and has all kinds of powers."

"Oh, really? I'd like to see one magic that it can do right now."

"OK. Watch. I am going to do the Save Magic." [touches head with twig, saying the word 'Save']

[half a minute or so elapses...]

"Hm. I can't see anything happening..."

"Well, it is a protection magic, so, anything I don't want will not happen for one whole minute! You have to think of what you want to not happen to you, but not say it out loud."

"So what did it protect you from now?"

"From hugs and kisses, Mama! See? The magic did not let me get hug and kiss for one whole minute! "

"But, that doesn't seem like fun magic to me. What would happen to me if I tried to hug and kiss you when this Save Magic is on?"

"You'll disappear for one minute till the magic goes away."

"Oh. That sounds like fun. Can you do it again so I can try to hug you and see where I disappear to?"

"Nah. I don't want to do it now. Maybe later."

"But, shouldn't it protect you from hurts and owwies and accidents instead?"

"Well, love hurts, Mama! You always pinch-kiss my cheeks and squish-hug my body. But, if you want protection from getting hurt badly if you are in a car crash, you can use this, okay? I'll share the Magic Twig with you for that."

Easy-to-Do Eco-friendly Party Favors

The newly minted 6 year old wanted to get together with his friends and have a special group play-date to celebrate his birthday.

Right from picking the venue from the 3 choices we gave him to checking the RSVPs; from listing possible things to make for the party favors to actually making them, the kid was fully involved. I like it that he can make up his mind quickly and stick with it. I wasn't that sure about anything when I was six.

Hand-made things are much-valued in our house. The 8 year old doesn't feel happy to wrap up a birthday present for her friends unless she has at least one small hand-made thing that she has put some thought into and the time and effort to make it. The 6 year old has been the same way since that first set of Holiday Cards he made for his friends when he was not yet 3.

Making the party favors was the highlight for the kid during the previous weekend. He wanted to include 6 items in the goody bag as he is six. Much like five items when he turned five  and 4 items when he turned four. He did agree that he will break this trend when he turns 7 and come up with something new.

Being partial to eco-friendly re-usable things, it wasn't hard to assemble the items for the party favors. Especially when the kids were keen on doing most of the work.


1. Rainbow I Spy Jar: Much like the I-Spy Jar he made for himself when he was little. Assembly-line precision is his game. I re-purposed a few used  plastic drink bottles from the reycling bin.

From choosing the food colors to use, to mixing the color in the rice to make the filling for the jar; from selecting things to put in the I Spy jar, to laying out containers with the chosen items for assembly; from scooping and pouring the colored rice through the cone-funnel  in rainbow order, to tucking in a few extras in each jar so there's the surprise element, the kid was completely in-charge of this item, and loving it.

I simply printed out labels to go with the jars with a short list of items to spy and attached it to the jar. So, it wasn't much work for me at all.

2. Six Stories CD: After the usual bedtime reading, most nights he also listens to music or stories-on-tape in bed. So, he wanted to make a CD of stories for his friends.

Initially, he wanted to make up his own stories and have me record it. But, knowing how wild and long and convoluted his original stories can get, I steered him towards just reading his current favorite books.

But that proved difficult as he has a zillion favorites, most of which were non-fiction. So, to make things easier, I suggested that he choose six fiction picture books, short and fun and rhyming.

That proved just as hard as well. So, I offered to choose 3 from our bookshelf for him, while he could choose 3 from the current batch of picture books we had checked out from the library.

This worked out well. We finally had six fun stories he read aloud which I recorded and burned a CD.

I made the CD labels. The kid helped make the CD "cases". We had a bunch of Marble Papers from various times that we do it at home. Shaving Cream Marbling is one of the staple favorites at home: after the first few beautiful prints, the kids love the sensory experience of just playing with the shaving foam and making a mess, which is fine.


3. Polka Dot Sidewalk Chalk: Both the kids love sidewalk chalk and they love drawing either on the easel blackboard or the sidewalk. They are always on the lookout for fun chalks. When we came across these polka dot ones at Michael's it was settled. These were the chalks his friends would love to have.

4. Wood Stamps: If there is one thing that I can't easily walk away from, it is wood stamps. I love the variety, I love their versatility, I love the potential they present... and looks like some of this has rubbed off on the 6 year old.

Rather than just some random design, the kid zoomed in on the alphabet set of stamps.

When he was still working on his writing skills but had so much to write down, he found the alphabet stamps at home very handy. Simply pick out the letters that made the sound he wanted, and stamp it on the paper. Lo and behold! He has written.

I still treasure the "i luv mumu" card he made for me at 4 - his first card with those words - stamped on.

I did pick out some design stamps for the siblings of his friends who were joining us for the party, I couldn't resist.


5. Seed Paper: We called it "Friendship Paper: Plant it and watch it bloom!" On and off we make hand-made paper at home.  Add a little seeds to it and we have seed paper, ready to plant. It looks like we default to seed paper for both kids' birthday as it is in Spring and 'tis the season to plant.

The kid helped tear up the unwanted papers and soak them in water to make the pulp. Then, scooped some pulp into my mesh frame to make the paper. We let it dry by the vent. Then, cut the seed paper into heart shapes and attach a label and it is good to go.


6: Friendship Book: At first, the kid wanted to write a book. But, I talked him out of it as his books tend to be too elaborate. Then, we talked about how fun it would be to make your own book! So, we decided to make a sort of acrostic poem-ish activity book that his friends get to fill out and customize as they like.

Along with the alphabet stamp, this would be a fun activity for the recipients, hoped the kid. I printed the pages and used a paper-fastener to hold the pages together. For some reason, the kid prefers brads to stapler... and I think it might have something to do with the ease of adding more pages to his existing book...


7. Fabric Goody Bag: Last but not the least, he wanted a reusable fabric bag for holding all these lovely goodies. I sewed them quickly. His sister helped add the cinching ties.

The kid wanted to personalize each bag. So he stamped a rainbow fish. Used his alphabet stamps with fabric ink and stamped the names for each of his guests. And the sibling's name if they had any.

Plus, knowing how much both my kids love to label their things, I printed a few custom-design name labels for the friends and tucked it into their goody bags. The 8 year old girl loved making the flags using the printed label, chopsticks, and some Scotch™ tape, to go in each bag.

All in all, a fun day with friends, with parents catching up and getting to know each other better while the kids filled the space with their collective energy and warmth.

Kids Craft: Valentine Cards: Prehistoric Splotch Creatures

Prehistoric creatures is the current interest for the youngest kid. And when he gets interested in something, we all end up getting sucked into it, being easily affected by his enthusiasm and his insistence on having us find the right sort of materials to satisfy his curiosity. Raiding the library, scouring the web, filtering the youtube videos are all legitimate means for accessing information. Not to mention watching BBC's Walking With Beasts and other Walking With... series.

So, when it came to making Valentine cards for his friends, the kid insisted on making something Prehistoric. Not the dinosaurs, no, that's too boring and over-done. But more like the creatures in the late Eocene, Oligocene, Pliocene, Pliestocene eras.

Now, neither him nor I possess the artistic abilities needed to bring the Indricothere and Gastornis and Megalodon and Dorudon and Basilosaurus to life on paper, which posed a hurdle.

So, rather than sticking to known prehistoric creatures, he decided to take some artistic license and make up some of his own.

Coincidentally, I came across Creating Splat Monsters post which reminded me of the "Folded Paper Paint Blobs" the kid loves to do on and off anyway.

The idea is simple:

1. Cut acrylic paper to size for the "valentine card"; have enough of them ready to go 
2. Have about 3 or 4 brightly colored acrylic paints ready to go
3. Place blobs of fairly thick bright colored paints on one piece of acrylic card paper
4. Take another piece of acrylic card paper and place on top of this paint-blobbed paper
5. Smooth out with the hand gently so the paints mingle and spread and go splat!
6. Peel the two papers to reveal mirror-imaged Splat Creatures; allow to dry completely
7. Glue on googly eyes; add limbs, tentacles, fins and any other features as desired with a pen

We used sparkly paints to give that extra brilliance, and kept the card to a nominal size. The kid decided to just glue the funny eyes, no limbs or fins or tentacles this time.

All that was left to do: add the caption to indicate the names of each of the prehistoric creatures. The kid came up with the names on the fly and I faithfully acted as the scribe. Like:

Gastornychus Lyhejnis
Ichthyocascus - a fish-like creature
Brontoseratonia
Xianglongornis
Megatherius
Tylothere
Quetzalpretonia
Telascoropod

Then, simply rubber stamp at the back to mark the occasion, and sign his name. That wrapped up the process.

Two dozen Unique Prehistoric Creatures (No-Evidence-Of-Existence) Valentine Cards ready in no time - especially because the work is actually for 12 cards, with 12 more of them just mirror-images.

"This is so fun, Mama. I want to do more!" made me smile.

Six, Olinguipus, Oh My Shoe

A Kick in the Head started the poetry journey for the older child when she was about six-ish, and a year later, we did a study of how to write poetry at home just to demystify the process which led to her first poetry collection on Tide Pools, which just happened to be what she was interested in at that time.

Again, over this summer, the very same A Kick in the Head from our bookshelf sparked a wild interest in poetry for the younger child. We've been reading several poetry picture books (separate post coming soon) to serve as inspiration, the most-admired of which was Stardines.

Anyway, so far, the kid has produced 3 poetry books, each with about 10 to 12 poems, on various topics that caught his fancy. No strict rhyme scheme, no exercise in standard poetic forms; mostly bordering on the silly, composed extempore from free form rambling, nothing profound, nothing earth-shattering...

Just the fact that he initiated it and I simply acted as the typist/illustrator made it an enjoyable experience for me.

Olinguipus came right after reading Stardines - the inspiration to combine two known things and make a new thing: Olinguito and Octopus makes Olinguipus, Art is Arm and Foot. Illustrations were added to make the poems clear.

Oh My Shoe was possibly inspired by Shel Silverstein who happens to be the older child's favorite so far. As the Contents show,  a fairly wide set of topics are covered in this collection. Very few illustrations, mostly relying on the strength of the direct and simple words. I particularly liked The House They Lived In and I Have A Nose.

Six is the latest book and my favorite. No illustrations at all. As with the other books, one of the poem's title became the book's title. My favorites were Six, Longmouth Fish, Hummingbird, and Babirusa.

Spin the World Game

"Mama., I want to make a game for my friend, for his birthday. It has a Spinner that you spin to go around the world, to the planets and outer space. Actually, the Spinner is a rocket ship", came the excited words mostly in one breath one fine weekend morning.

"O...kayyy. What shape should we make the game? Circle? Square?", I casually indulged not knowing the impending...

"It is a triangle game, Mama. And it has 2 sides. One side is night and it is blue. The other side is day and it is yellow. The Day side has animals in it and the Night side has the planets and outer space", was the prompt and confident response.

With still no inkling of what is in store, I automatically quizzed, "Does it have a name?What is this game called?"

"We can call it Spin the World, Mama. Because we spin the rocket ship to go to outer space. Can you help me make it now?" hit me like a ton of bricks. I rocked on my heels while scrambling the eggs for the morning's nourishment.

"Sure. Let's see if we can find all the materials we need", I suggested noncommittally.

Thus started this wild adventure one weekend, directed (and micromanaged) by Og and executed by me, with close supervision (and the inevitable artistic tantrums) from Og, and complete aloofness from Ana.

Materials used:

Blue and yellow Matte card stock paper for the triangular game board and the spinner rocket ship
White card stock paper for the essential "Instructions" to accompany the game
Regular colorful markers, pen, pencil etc.
textured papers for making the 8 planets and the sun
Animal stickers
Plastic washer and paper fastener to make the spinner rocket ship spin
Glue and scissors
Clear contact sheet for laminating the game board

When this original game was built and ready to be tested, all laminated, with the spinner mechanism in place and working gloriously thanks to Papa's handy-ness, Og insisted that it was still incomplete: the instructions! How else will we know how to play this mind-blowing game?!

Writing the instructions was the most fun for me. I tried to make it as bizarre and vague as possible, much like the instructions we've found in some packages that were possibly written/translated by non-native English speakers. Tried is the key.

Also, the much needed picture of the game that does not quite match the actual game was the extra touch. And the arbitrary age range for who can play this game.

And the generic "Manufactured at a local plant"...

Og and I were feeding off of each others' wild energy that day, getting exasperated and excited alternately, but ended up creating something quite satisfying and novel. To us, anyway.

And, we did wrap it up and give it to his friend for his birthday. I hope his parents got a good laugh out of it and the little kiddo was suitably enthusiastic about playing the game. Over and over. Till it falls apart. Which might happen before his interest wanes (if it exists at all), considering the sturdiness of the materials used...